How to Become a Data Scientist and Educational requirements for data scientists

Data science has become one of the hottest careers in this century. The massive amount of information online has created a demand for storing, interpreting and applying the big data for various purposes and this is precisely the job of a data scientist.

There is too much information for ordinary people to process and use. Data scientists gather, organize and analyze the data in order to help people, organizations, enterprises and governments to handle, store and interpret the data for a variety of purposes. Data scientists come from a variety of educational backgrounds. However, a majority of them will have a technical schooling background. Computer-related majors and graduations and post graduations in math and statistics are useful for pursuing a career in data science.

How to become a data scientist

The three general steps to becoming data scientist are here:

Get a bachelor’s degree in IT, computer science, physics, math or a related field.

Get a master’s degree in data or a related field of study.

Get the required experience in the field where you wish to invest your data science skills and find a job. Some of the popular fields where data science is used include healthcare, business and physics. However, every industry domain today needs data scientists to contribute their knowledge and skills.

Educational requirements for data scientists

Several educational paths can lead to a career in data science. However, it is impossible to get started with data science without a collegiate degree. It is good to have a four-year bachelor’s degree. Over 73% of data scientists today have a graduate degree and about 38% of them have a Ph.D. If you aspire for a high-end position in the field of data science, you must have a Master’s degree or Ph.D.

Some schools provide data science degrees. These courses will capacitate you to analyze complex sets of data. These courses will also involve a fund of technical information connected to computers, statistics, data analysis methods and others. The necessary quality for a data scientist is to be able to make a creative and analytical judgment based on their findings.

Some technical, as well as computer-based degrees that will help you get started with a career in data science, include studies in Computers, Statistics, Physics, Social Science, Mathematics, Applied Math, And Economics. These degrees will teach you some important skills related to data science namely experimenting, coding, quantitative problem solving, handling huge data and many others.

Specializations

Today every business, organization and agency needs data science. Hence data science needs specialization in the field in which you wish to work. Some of the socializations in data science include business, automotive, insurance, marketing, pricing, sales, defense, and many others.

Career as a data scientist

Once you have equipped yourself with the skills necessary to become a data scientist, you must also get some job training in the field or company you choose to work with. Many such pieces of training are centered on the specific internal systems and programs of a company. Such training will teach you some advanced analytical skills that are not taught in colleges. Data science is continuously evolving. When you find your career as a data scientist, you must keep updating your knowledge and skills. There are several training opportunities available to data science professionals today to stay on the leading edge of the data science industry.